Category: Notes from Stonehaven

One More Word: To Casually Split Your Infinitive With

I like to occasionally split an infinitive. Not always – just now and then. Neither too often, nor too seldom. There’s a fine line. Quick review: An infinitive is the basic form of a verb, usually preceded by “to”. If I say “to sleep, perchance to dream”, then “to sleep” and “to dream” are infinitives.…

March 2, 2016
And Another Word: The Conjunction You Start Your Sentence With

There’s this idea that it’s wrong to open a sentence with a conjunction. Conjunctions are words like “and”, “or”, “nor”, “but”, “because”, “so”, and so forth. They connect other words, phrases, or sentences. In other words, their function is to conjoin. That’s why they’re called conjunctions. The whole topic can get very complicated: There are…

March 1, 2016
One Word: The Preposition You End Your Sentence With

There’s this idea that it’s wrong to end a sentence with a preposition. It won’t die. But it’s mistaken – the idea, I mean, not the preposition. A preposition is a perfectly good thing to end a sentence with. The notion that one can’t do this is often put forward as a “rule” of English…

February 29, 2016
Can Two Positive Words Ever Be Negative?

How can two positive words produce a negative meaning? Or perhaps more accurately: Is this even possible? Alert reader Mahih Pouryaghma asks about this, prompted by my recent article on “I could/couldn’t care less.” People used to say (and some still say) “I couldn’t care less” to mean “I have no interest in this matter.”…

February 26, 2016
Vintage Words Back in Vogue

Vintage words are making a comeback. (Thanks to Richard Green for spotting an eye-opening article about this.) Words like “peruse”, “smitten”, “bespoke”, and “dapper” are rising sharply in popularity since year 2000 – the turn of the 21st century. The same is true of words like “thee”, “thou”, “fortnight”, “bedchamber”, “amongst”, and others that are…

February 25, 2016
One Word: Could/Couldn’t

I couldn’t care less about the word “could”. Also, I could care less about “couldn’t”. Except when we use “could” and “couldn’t” – words that profess to be exact opposites – to mean exactly the same thing. How is that even possible? Spoiler alert: It’s possible! I didn’t think so, but I was wrong. Read…

February 24, 2016
Irfanview: A Top-Tier Photo Editor

Irfanview is a small, lightning-fast, super-powered photo editor for Microsoft Windows. If you ever touch digital images, you need it. I promised recently to write about my favorite writing tools. Irfanview is one of them. This may seem strange. How is an image editor a “writing tool”? Writers need images and illustrations. Maybe not all…

February 23, 2016
One Word: Your Relationship to the Parents of Your Child’s Spouse

There is no such word! In English, that is. In some other languages, yes. But not English. This word fascinates me despite the fact that it doesn’t exist. Or, perhaps more aptly, because it doesn’t exist. Either way, it speaks volumes about our English-speaking society, the relationships we value – and those we do not.…

February 22, 2016
My Fascination With Fasteners

My love affair with fasteners – glue, tape, staples, you name it – goes back longer than I can remember. Of my many obsessions, this is one of the few with obvious practical uses. This fastener affinity probably isn’t specific enough to call a hobby. Not exactly. Hobbies are systematic. This is more a theme…

February 20, 2016
One Word: Pert Near

A recent article of mine uses the compound word “pert near”. What’s the deal there? It was my article on whistling (I can’t whistle) in which I asked whether there’s “anything you can’t do … even though pert near everyone else you know can”. Of course, “pert near” is a slang expression meaning “pretty nearly”…

February 19, 2016
Why I Never Learned to Whistle

It’s true: I can’t whistle! Never learned, despite years of trying. This article’s title is misleading — or perhaps its more accurate to say it simply reflects wishful thinking. I’d love to know why I can’t whistle. But since I don’t know, I can’t tell you. Speaking of you — does anyone else experience this…

February 18, 2016
One Word: Tier

“Tier” is my kind of word. It’s short. It has a neat sound. It’s familiar without being overused. Best of all, it’s useful. Physically, a tier is one of a series of stacked rows or levels. Rungs of a ladder, for instance, or the third row of seats in a stadium. Figuratively, a tier is…

February 17, 2016